Black Lives Matter: Can anyone help me with literature recommendations?

[Didiusfalco]

As part of my job I've been asked to come up with a list of texts to purchase to enable students to have access to Black Literature, History, Politics. We have the more obvious stuff such as Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison but I'd love to hear some recommendations as I've realised how poor my knowledge is in this area. Thanks.

Where are you and your students based? All of your examples are American? Some will be universally relevant and there is a great list mostly American sources here

www.goodreads.com/list/show/82461._BlackLivesMatter_Reading_List?page=3

If in the UK then you might want to add some that are specifically dealing with the UK context and range across BAME areas. This is just off the top of my head but there are so many more that are possible:

Akala Natives: race and class in the ruins of Empire

Afua Hirsch Brit(ish)

Reni Eddo-Lodge Why I'm no longer speaking to white people about race

Lovers and Strangers: an immigrant history of post-war Britain by Clair Wills

Black and British by David Olusoga

The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon

Black, Listed by Jeffreye Boakye

The Good Immigrant ed by Nikesh Shukla

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta

Afropean by Johny Pitts

I really really recommend Natives by Akala. He has a way of articulating things that just cut through the bullshit and make it all seem so simple.

Anything by Chimamanda Adichie, popular titles include Half of a yellow sun, Purple Hibiscus and Americanah.

I always liked Caryn Phillips's books, he is a very under rated writer IMO.

Andrea Levy's Small Island is a wonderful book, set in London, and deals with the arrival and treatment of the Windrush Generation.

Tayari Jones, An American Marriage - I've just read it, very emotional

I loved Americanah and An American Marriage.

Such a Fun Age- Kiley Reid,is very good.

I follow a lot of book instas and these come v recommended in USA. Trying to get my hands on them but some are quite new.

Red at the Bone- Jacqueline Woodson
Another Brooklyn- Jacqueline Wooden( only £2.60) at the moment. I’ve just ordered it.

Really want these-
The Vanishing Half- Brit Bennet
The Mothers- Brit Bennet

Not sure they cover politics or history though.

Michelle Obama’s autobiography is v good and obviously covers politics.

If it’s teenage children The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is fantastic.

Anything by Audre Lorde too, I agree with lots of the contemporary suggestions above.

Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo. It tells the stories of 12 black women in the U.K. They’re different ages, backgrounds, sexuality etc, so it gives a great cross section of black women’s lives. It won the Booker prize in 2019.

The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano.

Behold the Dreamers
Sue Monk Kidd books

Not sure if they’re academic enough for what you want but I really enjoyed them and learnt a lot.

Anything by James Baldwin.
Black Like Me
Why We Can't Wait by MLK
Down Second Avenue by Ezekiel Mphalele (just one of many great South African authors).

Actually apologies Sue Monk Kidd is white. The two I read were about the slave trade but won’t be what you’re after.

I second Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie. She is one hell of a writer.

Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys is a stunning book. So is The Underground Railroad.

There’s poetry as well - Derek Walcott, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, Benjamin Zephaniah, George the Poet.

I can’t remember whether anyone upthread mentioned Alice Walker, too.

Maybe a little dry but How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

depending on the age of your students, The Sellout by Paul Beatty

Chimimanda Ngozie Adichie is a brilliant writer.
Old style reading list...Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe and Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiongo formerly known as James Ngugi.

'Girl woman other ' was the first book I have read in ages where I actually felt sad when it finished and went straight back to page one to read it again....

@destroyedpeople it was amazing wasn’t it?

White Teeth by Zadie Smith is getting older now I guess but is amazing and set mostly in London.

I would also recommend Adichie.

Zadie Smith's White Teeth is set in London.

Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman is a powerful play set in Nigeria during British colonial rule. It's based on a real event.

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, set in post-colonial Rhodesia during the sixties.

Definitely Benjamin Zephaniah. James Berry is a poet of the Windrush generation who explores the tensions of the time very well.

Claudia Rankine.

@LunaNorth yes really good.....esp as it was a Booker winner I was kind of expecting that it might be unreadable like the last booker winning book I tried...mentioning no (Irish) names....

A truly wonderful book.

Audible currently has In Search of Black History, its free and has 8 episodes. I haven't listened yet though.